Many hands make light earth
Pulling up at the Kaiwai whānau homestead where Grant lives with his partner Alice Kaiwai, we found a crew of people preparing a feast. One group was building an Argentinian-style barbecue – a corrugated iron enclosure around an open fire, over which two beasts were barbecued. Others were preparing vegetables, hāngi-style, to cook in a large pizza oven.
Grant Steven’s all-consuming passion is teaching light earth building techniques to empower people and communities to build low-cost small buildings using local materials. He’s employed as a tutor by the Eastern Institute of Technology (Ruatoria campus), and organises workshops in various communities around the rohe.
He’s a get-stuck-in kind of a guy. The way he works suits groups of people, whānau and hapā all mucking in together. He has quite a following on Facebook, and regularly posts photos and videos of the builds that he, his
